Religion

[Octavian]

but how many in todays world ?
vast majority of top scientists are atheists because they are more educated than years before and education makes them better to be able to sort fact from fantasy.
Scientists have a advantage that leads them to becoming atheists, because they know the real truth about our origins and the origins of the universe. Knowing this, they find very little substance in the supernatural claims of theism.

Do you know that for sure or are you presuming?

Brian Greene, a well known astrophysicist, who’s an atheist, has said a large number of his well respected peers are religious. He even said he was surprised when he attended events how many were.

 

[Octavian]

obviously they are not thick
i would suggest most theists are seeing as the threat not attaining eternal life comes with those damm precursors

There’s more theists in the world than atheists, by some distance too, you only get a bigger sweeping generalisation if you’re having a go at the whole of humanity.

The number of theists in the world is greater than the number of men, or the number of women in the world. When you see how different men can be to one another in beliefs, education, intelligence etc. even men who have grown up in the same house, the notion of stereotyping theists becomes incredibly absurd.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

I would say that you can be atheist and have heart, and that you can call yourself religious/spiritual and not have heart. And vice versa.I’d imagine a fair few might experience life as a mixture of the above. But if the world he envisions is a reflection of what he wrote, then I’d say ‘no, thanks’ whether that world is atheist,religious, spiritual, agnostic or whatever

I’d say I have no problem agreeing with any of that except, I wouldn’t claim to know anything of the world he envisages, or more correctly, how he envisages the world, from the little he wrote.

I’d probably put myself in the agnostic atheist category. The agnostic in me probably has more to do with the indoctrination of a Catholic education, which leaves guilt at non belief that is very hard to shake when you’re younger, but also leaves you hoping for a reason for all this.
Whatever that reason is, I certainly don’t believe it has anything to do with any higher authority looking down on us and certainly not anything like a biblical version.

But I’m ok with not knowing. It’s alright to just not know. I don’t understand quantum physics either and a lot of the scientific theories lose me and raise as many questions as they find solutions for.
So be it. So it always will be, as far as I can see. The more we discover the more we’ll realise the little we know.
At least science calls them theories until proven. I don’t see any amount of scholarly study of ancient transcripts written by men who hadn’t got the understanding we do now, no matter how little that is, as getting anywhere beyond faith and not a little dogma.

That’s how I see it and am happy enough with that. I’ll die and complete the cycle of life when I return to the earth and all that.

Anyone, like yourself or @Octavian or a few others that have strong beliefs that don’t match my view, well that’s ok. I wouldn’t try to convince you otherwise.

I don’t think I’m any more positive or negative than most people. I can live peacefully without a God.

 

[Octavian]

I’d say I have no problem agreeing with any of that except, I wouldn’t claim to know anything of the world he envisages, or more correctly, how he envisages the world, from the little he wrote.

I’d probably put myself in the agnostic atheist category. The agnostic in me probably has more to do with the indoctrination of a Catholic education, which leaves guilt at non belief that is very hard to shake when you’re younger, but also leaves you hoping for a reason for all this.
Whatever that reason is, I certainly don’t believe it has anything to do with any higher authority looking down on us and certainly not like anything like a biblical version.

But I’m ok with not knowing. It’s alright to just not know. I don’t understand quantum physics either and a lot of the scientific theories lose me and raise as many questions as they find solutions for.
So be it. So it always will be, as far as I can see. The more we discover the more we’ll realise the little we know.
At least science calls them theories until proven. I don’t see any amount of scholarly study of ancient transcripts written by men who hadn’t got the understanding we do now, no matter how little that is, as getting anywhere beyond faith and not a little dogma.

That’s how I see it and am happy enough with that. I’ll die and complete the cycle of life when I return to the earth and all that.

Anyone, like yourself or @Octavian or a few others that have strong beliefs that don’t match my view, well that’s ok. I wouldn’t try to convince you otherwise.

I don’t think I’m any more positive or negative than most people. I can live peacefully without a God.

I don’t have strong beliefs, I’m coming from a position of agnosticism.

I just think mocking the beliefs of others in the religious debate is bad for the debate, unless that person is fundamentalist and is refusing to accept evidence.

 

[tonea2003]

There’s more theists in the world than atheists, by some distance too, you only get a bigger sweeping generalisation if you’re having a go at the whole of humanity.

The number of theists in the world is greater than the number of men, or the number of women in the world. When you see how different men can be to one another in beliefs, education, intelligence etc. even men who have grown up in the same house, the notion of stereotyping theists becomes incredibly absurd.

my dads bigger than your dad is that where we are at, good grief

i have no idea what point you are making, it in no way addresses the fact that most christian and muslim thiests are pretty much bound by codes/rules of their particular creeds to enable entry into heaven
and thats a lot of people

 

[Octavian]

my dads bigger than your dad is that where we are at, good grief

i have no idea what point you making, it in no way addresses the fact that most christian and muslim thiests are pretty much bound by codes/rules of their particular creeds to enable entry into heaven
and thats a lot of people

Are you purposely twisting what I’m writing?

genuine question because “my dad is bigger than your dad” is very far from what point I was trying to make.

The point I was trying to make is calling billions of people thick and scared because of their religious beliefs is absurd. You’ve no idea what lead them to that belief or what they’re experience has been. I was giving an example of the sample size of people being stereotyped

The majority will just be religious because they’ve grown up in a country where everyone is and they’re taught it from a young age. but others go to it not through being stupid or scared but other reasons.

The only rule to getting into heaven in the New Testament is faith in Jesus, as a faith there is no real code. The “law”, as Paul put it, is there as an example of how to live but it’s not a determining factor on salvation.

 

[arfurclue]

I’d say I have no problem agreeing with any of that except, I wouldn’t claim to know anything of the world he envisages, or more correctly, how he envisages the world, from the little he wrote.

I’d probably put myself in the agnostic atheist category. The agnostic in me probably has more to do with the indoctrination of a Catholic education, which leaves guilt at non belief that is very hard to shake when you’re younger, but also leaves you hoping for a reason for all this.
Whatever that reason is, I certainly don’t believe it has anything to do with any higher authority looking down on us and certainly not anything like a biblical version.

But I’m ok with not knowing. It’s alright to just not know. I don’t understand quantum physics either and a lot of the scientific theories lose me and raise as many questions as they find solutions for.
So be it. So it always will be, as far as I can see. The more we discover the more we’ll realise the little we know.
At least science calls them theories until proven. I don’t see any amount of scholarly study of ancient transcripts written by men who hadn’t got the understanding we do now, no matter how little that is, as getting anywhere beyond faith and not a little dogma.

That’s how I see it and am happy enough with that. I’ll die and complete the cycle of life when I return to the earth and all that.

Anyone, like yourself or @Octavian or a few others that have strong beliefs that don’t match my view, well that’s ok. I wouldn’t try to convince you otherwise.

I don’t think I’m any more positive or negative than most people. I can live peacefully without a God.

If I have an enjoyable conversation with someone about football, and both of us come away feeling more inspired and/or having learned something, is that an atheist, agnostic, religious or spiritual experience? Does it really matter? Either way, I find that conversation would have a different quality that a ’conversation‘ where someone is dumping shit on others in order to get high. A world that is open to the former would, for me, seem like a different choice than one that is an expression of the latter.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

There’s more theists in the world than atheists, by some distance too, you only get a bigger sweeping generalisation if you’re having a go at the whole of humanity.

The number of theists in the world is greater than the number of men, or the number of women in the world. When you see how different men can be to one another in beliefs, education, intelligence etc. even men who have grown up in the same house, the notion of stereotyping theists becomes incredibly absurd.

Yes, there are more believers than non-believers, but drill down a little further and you are in the minority.
Around 30% of the world's population are estimated to be of the Christian faith and follow the bible's creation story. Therefore 70% are of other religions or atheist who do not believe in the bible's version.
Hindu's have their Lotus flower growing out of Vishnu's navel and splitting into earth, heaven and sky.
Muslims have a different version of the big bang where a "godly day" was equivalent to 50,000 years.
Ancient Greeks believed in a Chaos, Gaia, Mother Earth, Uranus and a load of other gods.
Taoists have a serpent inside an egg that divided into two.
Some North American native tribes tell of beavers, otters and ducks, diving into the sea and piling soil on to the back of a giant turtle to create earth.
Moses's version is just another one to add to the list. They can't all be right - but they could all be wrong.

 

[arfurclue]

Yes, there are more believers than non-believers, but drill down a little further and you are in the minority.
Around 30% of the world's population are estimated to be of the Christian faith and follow the bible's creation story. Therefore 70% are of other religions or atheist who do not believe in the bible's version.
Hindu's have their Lotus flower growing out of Vishnu's navel and splitting into earth, heaven and sky.
Muslims have a different version of the big bang where a "godly day" was equivalent to 50,000 years.
Ancient Greeks believed in a Chaos, Gaia, Mother Earth, Uranus and a load of other gods.
Taoists have a serpent inside an egg that divided into two.
Some North American native tribes tell of beavers, otters and ducks, diving into the sea and piling soil on to the back of a giant turtle to create earth.
Moses's version is just another one to add to the list. They can't all be right - but they could all be wrong.

Do you ever read poetry? Just that poems are one way that universal themes can be expressed in many different ways. Might even find that the point of them can be to lure you into that which is beyond right or wrong, and in that way come to see life in a different light.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

If I have an enjoyable conversation with someone about football, and both of us come away feeling more inspired and/or having learned something, is that an atheist, agnostic, religious or spiritual experience? Does it really matter? Either way, I find that conversation would have a different quality that a ’conversation‘ where someone is dumping shit on others in order to get high. A world that is open to the former would, for me, seem like a different choice than one that is an expression of the latter.

You’d like his music threads then.
Lots of opinions and debate about the good and the bad, but everyone accepting that it’s all subjective.